The game that replays the events of Columbine, but in RPG form. An experience …

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It looks like any of the RPGs you grew up with on the Super Nintendo; the only difference is the game begins with Marilyn Manson and Nirvana MIDI music, and you'll quickly pick out images and quotes that have since become iconic. This is the story of the shooting at Columbine as told in video game form. This is Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

It's off-putting to see these images and take part in this story; I kept thinking to myself that I don't want to kill anyone, and of course the only way to progress is the pick up the bombs and head to the school. Like any game with a compelling story—and it's hard not to become interested in seeing this story through the eyes of the killers, at least initially—the graphics wash away very quickly. You get to watch a flashback of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold practicing their bomb-making skills, you see them make a video asking that no one else be blamed, and then they grab their duffle bags and go.

When the shooting starts, the action moves into the standard RPG fight screens, except of course no one else is armed. So you select attack, you select your shotgun, and you select "jock type." And then the avatar disappears. In real life, someone died.

This game is hard to play. I wanted to quit after a few minutes. Is this something that anyone should actually sit down and play? I've killed tens of thousands of virtual people in hundreds of games, but this actually happened. Should that matter when it comes to a game? I don't have an answer to that; you'll have to decide for yourself if and when you decide to play this.

The game is skillfully made and written, but the fact remains that from the opening scene until the end I just wanted to walk away. This isn't something I would have paid for; this isn't something I wanted to spend time playing; these aren't images I want to remember.

After the Columbine shootings, the killers remained ciphers. We put our own feelings and ideas behind the pictures of their faces: the video games made them do it, the music made them do it, they were simply evil from the start. Super Columbine Massacre RPG at least treats us with a little bit more respect than the mass media and school officials by saying that these are complex issues that still need to be worked through.

It's a very interesting and many-layered game in that regard. The problem is, for the game to make its point, it has to make you want to sit down and play it through the conclusion, but I suspect many people will walk away after the first few minutes. This isn't fun, it isn't comforting, and it looks a little too deeply into the minds of the killers. That's not a journey I want to take, and I don't want to imagine myself pulling the trigger inside that school. I left the game shaken and disturbed about Columbine once again, but this is a game that's bound to be misunderstood, and the people who are most likely to gain anything from it will never play it. As a statement it's powerful, but because of the nature of videogames I doubt it will be very effective.

Verdict: It may make you look at Columbine in a different way, but most likely it'll just make you turn your computer off